A chimeralike state is the spatiotemporal pattern in an ensemble of homogeneous coupled oscillators, described as the emergence of coexisting coherent (synchronized) and incoherent (unsynchronized) groups. We demonstrate the existence of these states in three active camphor ribbons, which are camphor infused rectangular pieces of paper. These pinned ribbons rotate on the surface of the water due to Marangoni effect driven forces generated by the surface tension gradients. The ribbons are coupled via a camphor layer on the surface of the water. In the minimal network of globally coupled camphor ribbons, chimeralike states are characterized by the coexistence of two synchronized and one unsynchronized ribbons. We present a numerical model, simulating the coupling between ribbons as repulsive Yukawa interactions, which was able to reproduce these experimentally observed states.

• Received 4 August 2020
• Accepted 4 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.012214